Kids and Nature I believe that children need nature and that nature needs kids to be in it in order for our world to survive.

I’m convinced that one of the biggest things that gets in the way of kids experiencing nature is that we don’t give them a chance to explore it on their own.  That is, we don’t let them play in an unstructured way.  We’re pretty good at structuring them into play – over 50% of kids take part in some kind of organized sport – and that doesn’t count piano lessons or community organizations.  What we’re not so good at anymore is just letting kids play.

Recently, the Alberta Centre for Active living published an article about this – they found that parents are the number one thing that gets in between kids and play time.  We need to remember this when we’re getting busy – we could be disconnecting our kids from the outdoors.

Here’s the article: http://wellspringblog.centre4activeliving.ca/2012/02/childrens-views-about-meanings-of-play.html